realtalk@MIT is a new dialogue network that brings together human conversation with digital technologies to foster authentic and nuanced dialogue across the MIT campus. Developed in collaboration with CCC’s closely affiliated non-profit Cortico, realtalk enables the MIT community to come together in guided, small-group conversations to share the values and experiences they bring to MIT as a first step toward building trust and connections among classmates and colleagues.

Participants consent to having their conversations recorded so that they may elevate one another’s stories for cross-community listening. Human-steered AI tools then surface patterns and themes across these stories while audio medleys, data visualizations and other outputs help to amplify participants’ voices – over time creating a culture of listening and shared understanding across boundaries.

In addition to building important connections among community members, realtalk provides an opportunity to MIT leadership to hear a constellation of diverse MIT voices that would otherwise not be heard.